Breaking through the 'wall of corporation'

David Rajan, Oracle, recently attended a 24-hour workshop as part of NESTA's Open Alchemy initiative - a collaborative innovation project between diverse, non-competing UK clients of Oracle. Here, he tells how open innovation can remove corporate barriers and break through the 'wall of corporation'.

While corporations used to be quite insular and inward-looking when it came to research and development, many have now realised that there's a bit more to it than just their own ideas. Corporations have started to open their eyes to what's around them, recognising that the perspectives of customers, partners and others outside of the organisation can help their business do more and do better.

I see open innovation as a way of removing corporate barriers and breaking through the 'wall of corporation'. It involves becoming more transparent about the way in which you innovate and trying things that you wouldn't necessarily think of if you were working in isolation.

David Rajan
Inside the Reaction Chamber

The Open Alchemy project is a bit of an experiment. We thought we'd try something new and different but when we started out, we didn't know what would happen - it's not until you put an idea into practice that you know whether it's any good and whether other people will 'get it'.

Everything's been very positive so far and the Reaction Chamber event was really inspiring. It was incredible to see how well people came together to debate the four themes and how quickly they began sharing insights and knowledge. People sparked off one other with different perspectives and built on each other's ideas just as we hoped they would.

All companies want to find new ways to satisfy their customers and help them become more successful. Open innovation is a way to try to find these new ideas. It's another avenue to explore; a mechanism to help you engage with your customers and partners and find out what's important to them. If you're not working in partnership with customers, then you may just be guessing in the dark. There might be risks in taking the open innovation approach, but if you don't do it then you risk missing some big opportunities.
    
From time to time you encounter cynicism about a corporation's motives for partnering with a smaller company. As I see it, the goal in any open innovation partnership is to make something happen and to reach a win-win outcome. It's not about taking something from a smaller business.
Taking a tailored approach

Probably the biggest challenge in open innovation is simply working out how to do it. There's no formula to follow - what's right for one company isn't necessarily right for another. You have to work out what suits your organisation's culture, the sector you work in and the individuals involved. One of the essential ingredients for making a success of open innovation is having the right level of sponsorship in the business. People at the top levels of the organisation need to be fully bought in. There needs to be the desire to make the open innovation process work and a clear view of the value it can bring.

Corporations thinking about whether open innovation would work for them should also bear in mind that it can be helpful to take small steps rather than to go for a 'big bang'. Taking things slowly gives you time to experiment with different approaches. Starting out in a small, manageable way means you should be able to see value quickly. As with any new venture, you should also be prepared to fail - and then try again. Open innovation should be seen as a learning process, with the way you use it developing and evolving over time.

Comments on this article
Posted by NASIR ARIF on 5 April 2009
the young enterpreneur require this concept of innovation in the innovative emerging markets under the supervision of the mentotrs & corporate sectors as making them the idea partner getting them involed in the ideology of innovation after educating & training of them in the values,cultures & product segment ,strategy & entire stimulation process that emerges their innovative approach of thinking,innovating,crearting a idea for them whether it works or not.

There should be idea house in each comapny as a segment of the research & development department & now to be implemented & supervised as a core issue of the organisation.